The History of PEEK

July 30, 2023

The History of PEEK

Initial breeding stage (1978-1992):

PEEK was developed by the British Imperial Chemical Industries Company (ICI) in 1978 as an ultra-high-performance special engineering plastic, which was patented and industrialized by ICI, with a production capacity of 1,000 tons/year, and was mainly used in the field of defense and military industries.

Monopoly development and disintegration stage (1993-2004):
British Victrex (Victrex) company from ICI to buy PEEK business, showing a monopoly type development situation, and continue to expand the scale of production, production capacity increased to 2,800 tons / year in 2003, followed by DuPont, BASF, Japan Mitsui Toho Chemical Company, the United States of America, such as Tepu has developed similar products, PEEK applications from the initial military to expand to the industrial and biomedical PEEK applications have also expanded from the initial military to industrial and biomedical applications.

For a long time, PEEK has been listed as a strategic material by the Paris Coordination Committee, which has imposed a blockade and embargo on China. In order to meet the needs of national defense and civil high-tech development, the state included it in the "7th Five-Year Plan" ~ "15th Five-Year Plan" national key scientific and technological research projects and the "863 Plan" to carry out research. Research and development.

Comprehensive development stage (2005-present):

In 2005, Evonik (Evonik) acquired Jidai High-Tech, Solvay (Solvay) acquired India Garda's PEEK business; in 2009, China's Jinfa Science and Technology Co., Ltd., Panjin Zhongrun Special Plastics Co. In addition, PEEK modified composite and processing technology has gradually developed, the application areas are also expanding. Because of the global professional engaged in the production of PEEK manufacturers, the degree of competition in the market will become increasingly white-hot. At present, the United Kingdom Victrex, Belgium Solvay, Germany Evonik is the world's largest three PEEK producers.

PEEK SHEET